CHAPTER FIVE
Lily glanced around at her siblings, each with expectant expressions on their faces. "No. I mean, I'm not trying to keep it a secret. But I'm not going to have a conversation with him about it. Our relationship is over, and from what I've heard, he's moved on."
"He brought you home last night," Will pointed out.
"Yes. And I appreciated that, but there was no talk of taking up where we left off."
"I still think you should tell him. He's probably wondered about you leaving, just like we have."
Lily crossed her arms. "I'll think about it. Right now, it seems like maybe he has a lot on his plate already. Do you really think he needs to deal with all of this from me?"
Will tilted his head. "I suppose not, but you coming back is probably giving him something to deal with if he never really had closure before. Sorry, just coming from a guy's perspective. I'd want to know."
"I'll think about it," Lily said. "If you feel he should know about the MS, you're welcome to tell him. I just don't want to dredge up all the old relationship stuff which is inevitable if I sit down to talk to him about it."
"It might be easier coming from me," Will admitted. "If you're sure you're okay with that."
Lily shrugged. "If you think it would be best that he know then hearing it from you is probably better than me."
"He's a good guy who's had a bad turn of events in the past few years. I feel for the guy."
"You don't have to tell me he's a good guy," Lily reminded him. "I was with him for seven years. I didn't leave him because he was a bad guy. I left him because I felt he deserved better."
Will looked like he was going to say something more, but Cami laid her hand on his arm. "Will, I know you see things in the light of your relationship with Amy, but Lily might have a different path to take."
Lily watched as Will frowned at Cami but then he nodded. He let out a long sigh. "Fine. No more talking about Nate."
"Thank you," Lily said. "I appreciate you wanting to look out for him—he probably needs that more than ever—but getting involved with me again is not in his best interests."
Will gave her another quick hug before leaving the room. Once he was gone, there was silence in the room. Lily looked around. "Do you guys think he's right?"
"Well, until I ended up on bed rest, I would have agreed with him. But after being confined here and having to have people wait on me hand and foot, I understand what it’s like to feel as if you're a burden.
Lance never complains, but I know that it's added to his stress to have to deal with my needs on top of all his other responsibilities.
" Jessa ran a hand over her burgeoning stomach.
"I will be glad to get back to being able to pull my own weight.
So I do understand why you wouldn't want to place that kind of responsibility on Nate, even if it is years from now. "
"But Jessa, you know Lance does what he does for you out of love and would never view it as a burden," Laurel said. "None of us who have helped out these past several weeks have viewed it that way. And maybe Nate wouldn't view it that way either because he loves Lily."
"Loved." Her heart clenched as she corrected her sister.
Laurel glanced at her and shrugged. "Back when you first got the news he loved you. He didn't get to have a say."
"Do you really think—knowing Nate and the type of guy he is—that he would have agreed to end things because of my diagnosis?
Would he have stayed with me out of a sense of obligation since we were already engaged, or would he have stayed with me out of love?
I would never have known for sure, and I couldn't live with that. "
"I think we're coming at this from many different perspectives," Jessa said. "In the end, it is Lily's decision because it's her life. She is the one that has to live with this disease and all that encompasses. I don't know what I would have done in her position. None of us do."
"You're right," Violet agreed. She came to where Lily stood and wrapped her arms around her. "Just know that we love you and are here for you for the long haul. Never hesitate to tell us what you need."
Laurel joined the embrace followed by Cami.
Lily felt tears prick her eyes once again, but blinked to keep them at bay.
Because of the six to ten year age gap between her and them, at one time she had felt on the outside of things when it came to her sisters.
However, after these past few years on her own, Lily knew she had matured, and now the age difference didn't seem as significant.
She was truly thankful for their presence in her life.
"Hey, no fair," Jessa protested. "I can't get in on the group hug."
Laughing, the four women joined Jessa on the bed to include her in another embrace. It was wonderful to have such a normal sisterly moment after the heaviness of her revelation. Lily knew, more than ever, that her decision to come home had been the right one.
~*~*~
Nate stalked through the garage. The scent of burnt wood still lingered in the air, but hopefully after a couple of days of having the garage open it would dissipate.
The majority of the damage had been done to the back corner of the building which was where his office was.
For the time being, he'd have to do his paperwork elsewhere.
The sounds of the mechanics at work soothed him somewhat.
At least it was the sound of what normal had been before everything had fallen to pieces.
He was glad that the fire marshal had cleared him to reopen the garage sooner than expected provided they steered clear of the corner of the building that had been damaged.
That wasn't an issue since the guys rarely went to his office.
In fact, he avoided his office if at all possible as well.
"Everything okay?"
Nate turned to see the manager of the garage approaching him. "Hey, Don. Glad to see you guys all here this morning."
"Yep. We're glad to be able to get back to work. Know it can't be easy for the guys in Sanford. You gonna re-open there?"
"Not anytime soon. The garage there is in the same state as my house here.
It will have to be ripped right down and rebuilt.
I still have to work with the insurance to see what their final settlement will be.
Not something I'm looking forward to, but in the meantime the guys in Sanford will have to find other jobs, I think. "
"That's a shame. Especially for Marty. Really like that guy."
"Me, too." Nate rubbed a hand over his head. "I would consider bringing him on here, but there's not enough work. Plus I doubt he wants to drive this far for a job."
"Yeah, not likely any of these guys are going to quit on you. They all like you too much."
Nate gave Don a weary smile. "I'm grateful for that."
"They catch the guy yet? The one who did this?"
"Nope. Last I heard they had rounded up some of his buddies, but no one was talking."
One of the mechanics called for Don, and after he had excused himself, Nate continued on to his office.
He wanted to take a peek, just to see how much damage there was.
He supposed he should be thankful that early last week he'd accepted Don's offer to have his teenage daughter come in to scan all his un-entered invoices into his computer.
All of that was now available to him through his online backup.
He needed to do a deposit as well to get all the money into the bank and then pay some bills.
Life had to go on. Thankfully Lance had offered him the use of the library at the manor until he was able to get back into his office at the garage.
Nate collected the cash and checks from the fireproof safe that had preserved them.
After he'd gathered what he needed, he headed back out into the garage area.
He spotted Don standing with one of the mechanics and interrupted them briefly to let him know that he would be available by phone if anything came up that needed his attention.
Back at the manor, he carried the file box inside.
"Hey, Nate," Amy greeted him with a smile. "How're things going at the garage?"
"As well as can be expected. Very thankful that it is still functional."
"It's horrible how much damage fire can do. My mom said the other day they're just finally getting around to clearing out the damaged building at my old school."
"Yeah, I'm not sure when I'll be able to tackle the mess in Sanford." He lifted the box. "Lance told me I could make use of the library here since my office was damaged in the fire."
"Sure, it's just through there." Amy motioned with her hand. "We're having a bit of a late lunch today. Can I make you a sandwich?"
"I hate to be a bother," Nate said, though food sounded very appealing since he hadn't had breakfast that morning.
Amy laughed. "It's no bother to make another sandwich. Ham okay?"
"Yep. I'm not fussy."
"I'll bring it to you when it's ready."
Nate thanked her then headed for the library.
He put the box on the desk before heading up to his room to grab his laptop which had been spared in the fire since he’d had it with him in Sanford.
He glanced toward Lily's room, not surprised to see the door was closed.
It was possible she wasn't even in the manor right then. Not that it mattered to him.
Or at least that's what he kept telling himself.
Back in the library, he settled down at the desk and let out a long sigh before opening his laptop.
This was absolutely the part of the job he hated the most. He and his dad had slowly been turning over the paperwork side of things to Lily.
She'd taken some courses on bookkeeping at the college in order to help them out.
It had pleased Nate to have Lily working alongside him in the business that would one day have been theirs. But then she'd just up and left...